


Scarred, not Broken

by honestlygirlsthough



Category: Uncharted (Video Games)
Genre: Chlodine Week, Chlodine Week 2020, Chlodine Week: The Past, F/F, Game: Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, I'm a slut for military aesthetics okay?, So..., Soldier Nadine Ross, also I love Nadine's chest scar, and Nadine, yummy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-25
Updated: 2020-08-25
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:54:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26097457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/honestlygirlsthough/pseuds/honestlygirlsthough
Summary: "Fine. What do you want to know?"Chloe made a noise of deep thought. "I want some juicy details!""It was the military," Nadine deadpanned, "dunno what you expect.""Ugh," Chloe groaned and slumped in frustration. "Fine then. Tell me how you got that delicious scar on your chest."
Relationships: Chloe Frazer/Nadine Ross
Comments: 6
Kudos: 77





	Scarred, not Broken

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, here is my submission for Chlodine Week 2020 Day 1: The past
> 
> Enjoy!

"Jesus, Frazer." Nadine chastised her partner as the Jeep lurched over a particularly large rock. "Remind me why I always let you drive again?"

Chloe laughed loudly, "You don't, China. _You've_ never had a choice." She finished with a wink, lowering her sunglasses for Nadine to see. 

Nadine scoffed and rolled her eyes, trying not to smile too broadly. Chloe always did that. No matter how frazzled or angry Nadine was, something about her smile and tone always made Nadine feel light. "Your driving makes me miss military convoy rides."

"Miss?" Chloe asked with an interested lithe in her voice, chuckling quietly at Nadine's answering sigh. 

_Well, so much for that..._ All it took was one small snippet, a solitary crumb of information spoken in passing about Nadine's past to immediately trigger the treasure spelunking curiosity in Chloe. She knew if she offered no answer her partner would pester her endlessly before snooping herself. Nadine let her hand fall out the open window, enjoying the calm air of Greece. "I served in the military for eight years before touching Shoreline, and then taking over." 

Chloe whistled, "Wow. Eight years?"

"Ja," Nadine chuckled at her reaction. She propped her elbow on the door and placed her head in her hand, focusing in Chloe's direction, knowing there were more questions to follow.

"Tell me about it!" Chloe yelled over the wind.

"Not much to tell."

Chloe's eyes didn't leave the road as she reached over and smacked Nadine's thigh.

"Oe! What was that for?" Nadine laughed lightly, having caught Chloe's wrist after the impact.

"For being boring. Tell me!" Chloe made no move to regain her wrist. She refused to think about it too deeply, but Nadine's touch was addicting. The ex-mercenary, _ex-solider_ , had the most electric touch. It made her knees weak and her thighs warm.

Nadine playfully shoved Chloe's wrist, who then attempted to slap her arm in retaliation. "Fine. What do you want to know?"

Chloe made a noise of deep thought. "I want some juicy details."

"It was the military," Nadine deadpanned, "dunno what you expect."

"Ugh," Chloe groaned and slumped in frustration. "Fine then. Tell me how you got that delicious scar." She waved her finger in the area of Nadine's chest, reaching out at the last minute to touch. Of course, Nadine was too quick and slapped her hand away, feigning annoyance.

After a few awkward moments of silence passed, Nadine swallowed, "Alright..."

~~~

The gunshots ricocheted all around her. Every part of her body tensed to brace for possible impact as she sprinted for cover--her training be damned. She was _scared_. Nadine refused to submit to it though. She took a quick, deep breath and positioned her rifle against the edge of the building she was hugging. Almost instantly one of her enemies spotted her and prepared to shoot--but she was faster, her finger lighting fast on the trigger. _Down_. His friends called out, but she didn't listen to their words, she let their voices reach her ears so she could determine their squad size and location, nothing more. _Seven, fok!_ They were waiting around the corner, dug in, and ready to mow her down should she be stupid enough to storm them. 

"The fuck are you doing, Ross?!"

A large, sweaty body slammed itself against the wall beside her. She didn't need to look to know it was Mpho. "Reinforcements are 23 miles out. We won't live if we sit around happily waiting for them. We've got to finish off this fucking caravan."

"There's only two of us!" Mpho heaved, his lungs burning.

Nadine stole a look at him from her peripheral. His face wore a mixture of dirt, blood, and anger. She locked her jaw, knowing they were damned. The IED ambush killed most of their unit instantly. The unlucky ones were left lying in the jungle with limbs missing, screaming for help as the insurgents surrounded them. She thought she could still hear them, but knew it was just their enemies yelling amongst themselves, likely to advance soon. They didn't have time for this. "How many pops you good for?"

Mpho laughed heartily, adjusting his grip on his pistol before saying under his breath, "About three, Rossi."

"Fok."

"Ja." Mpho stepped forward to kneel on Nadine's right side, peaking over the corner past the blazing vehicles and towards the direction of the caravan stragglers. "What are we doing?"

Nadine shook her head, her unclipped helmet slumping into her field of view. She only had a quarter clip left herself, and no more. Their unit had been on their way to resupply--and the damn caravan knew that. Her father raised no coward. She tapped Mpho's shoulder and backed away from the wall, positioning herself in front of the doorway to the building. "We flank them through here." Her voice was dry.

"You know, they are probably expecting that. Maybe even got a juicy RPG waiting for us." Mpho chuckled, despite himself.

Nadine did not encourage him. But she knew. She wasn't a gambling woman, but she knew they had to bet everything right now and that they, were without a doubt, were going to bust. She signaled Mpho to breach the door. He quickly kicked it in, hugging the outside wall as Nadine stepped forward into the darkness, rifle never wavering. "Clear," she hissed. Mpho was at her back, still checking the darkness for movement. Nadine moved to the only small window in the room and slowly peaked the muzzle of her rifle through. As she peered down her sights, she confirmed there were seven insurgents in the driveway. There was a truck with a mounted gun, gunner present, while the rest were positioned around the truck in a circle, covering all angles of vision. Nadine resisted the urge to curse under her breath once more. She and Mpho had all of six, maybe seven, shots between the two of them. They could not afford to miss. "I'll cover left, you take right."

"And the big boy?" Mpho gestured to the gunner atop the truck bed. 

Nadine adjusted the angle of her rifle, "I'm dropping him first."

"Well, let's let loose hell, huh?" Mpho leaned into his pistol as he took his position opposite of Nadine on the window's sill, awaiting her engagement.

Nadine inhaled deeply through her nose and rested her finger against the trigger. As she waited for the gunner to relax his position, she took care to filter everything else from her mind. The musk in the air from her and Mpho's sweat, the oil and gunpowder caking her gun, the damp and rotten mud, the crackling of the fire outside along with the smell of charred metal. _What a shitty place to die._ The gunner reached a hand to scratch his head and Nadine squeezed the trigger. The force of the shot flung him off the truck's bed as screams echoed from the throats of his comrades. A smart one at the front had already honed in on Nadine's position, but Mpho made short work of him, shooting him in the neck. He fell, choking. A shotgunner invaded Nadine's field of view from the left and she aimed for his chest, but he was too quick. Her bullet found his thigh, and though he dropped to the ground, he still aimed his gun. _Shit!_

"Come on, Rossi," Mpho downed the shotgunner with a quick headshot, "you're shooting like your Pa!" He laughed and followed the scrambling insurgents, looking for an opportunity to send his last shot.

Nadine huffed, "Pa would disagree." Her rifle recoiled as she sent a round through another insurgent who was hiding in the foliage beside the truck. "Happy now? And watch your 4'o clock, I saw one run round there."

Mpho laughed, "That's more like my girl!" He swung his body out of cover and sure enough, Ross never failed him, a man was running full sprint towards them. He shot the man in the chest with ease, but the barrel of his pistol halted. He quickly glanced and saw the empty chamber. "I'm out!" His shout was partially deafened by Nadine's sniper accurate shot on a man who peaked from his tree cover.

"Ja, me too." Nadine and Mpho glanced at each other, fear and anxiety present in both pairs of eyes.

Mpho cursed and kneeled beside Nadine once again, dropping his pistol to grab his knife from his utility vest. "One left, I think. Any ideas?"

Nadine clipped her rifle to her vest and slung it over her shoulder. Movement behind the gunner truck caught her attention. She peered for a second further and sucked in a breath. "RPG! Fok, go!" She shouted, grabbing Mpho and hauling him out of the building. They were barely through the doorway when the RPG made contact with the inside wall. 

Nadine felt her vocal cords ache with the force of her scream but she couldn't hear herself. Concrete, mud, and wood exploded into the air around them and begun raining back down. The explosion knocked her to the ground with such force it felt as if heavens had opened and unleashed God's hand. Pain. Pure aching pain boiled throughout her limbs. She felt her eyes close and weigh heavy, threatening to stay closed and let the pain lull her towards unconsciousness. She would have let it if she hadn't heard Mpho's awful, struggled exclamation.

"N-nadine!"

She was too slow. The last insurgent was already atop her with a knife in hand. He screeched and brought it down quickly, but Nadine managed to be quicker the second time around, just barely. She caught his hands as the blade halfway punctured the bottom of her throat. She cried out but didn't let it phase her struggle. With every fiber of her strength, she pushed against the hands holding the blade, willing it to go no further. The man heaved all of his weight into the knife, dragging it downwards from her throat to her collarbone. White-hot pain stole Nadine's breath away. She couldn't breathe for she was screaming too loudly, and the strength in her arms was waining with every second. 

"--et off of her you shithead!" Mpho let out a war cry, tackling the man. He wouldn't let this fucker kill Rossi. No way. He ignored the pounding, oozing pain in his leg, he was pretty sure it was blasted open, and instead pummeled the insurgent's face into the mud. They struggled on the ground for a moment more, then a trifecta of shots rang out. Mpho gasped, and clutching his gut, he fell face-first onto the insurgent.

"No!" Nadine sparred no thought to wrenching the knife from her chest and crawling, then sprinting, the short distance to Mpho. The insurgent was struggling to unpin himself but Nadine got to him first. She fell, bringing the knife down and into his throat. Once, twice, then three times, four, five--

"Rossi."

Nadine blinked, tears already welling in her eyes. "Mpho, come on you big bastard," knife left lodged in the insurgent's throat, she desperately pulled at her friend's shoulder trying to flip him over. He weakly gasped in pain, the lower half of his stomach sopping wet with blood, his left leg in a similar state. "No," She whimpered. What little strength was left in her arms went into compressing the bullet wounds in Mpho's stomach.

Mpho struggled, blood softly spilling from the corners of his mouth, "You...you're dripping on me." 

Nadine tore her eyes from his wounds and focused on his face. He was smiling. She shouldn't have been taken aback by his indifference, Mpho always greeted despair and struggle with humor, but he was dying for God's sake. As if he heard her thoughts, he weakly pushed against her arms. 

"Your throat," he choked for a moment, "compress it, idiot." 

Nadine paused and suddenly felt the return of a deep and sharp pain ping her throat and collarbone area. Hell, her whole chest was on fire. She swallowed and felt the muscles in her throat straining, desperately trying not to tear further, blood leaking down her chest and arm. Instinctively, she plopped a hand over her wound.

"Both hands."

Nadine shook her head at Mpho. "Stop," she pleaded softly. 

Mpho smiled wider. "No, I don't think so."

Against every want and emotion inside her, Nadine took her right hand from Mpho's stomach and pressed it against her left on her throat. She didn't want to think it, because it couldn't be true, but it was. Mpho wasn't goin-

"I'm not going to make it."

Nadine winced as if she had been hit again. "I know, vfriend."  
The pain in her throat was reignited as she struggled to hold back tears. She was shaking. They were supposed to make a quick run for supplies. The same route they patrolled for weeks! _How did this happen? Fok..._ Mpho was her...the best person in her life. She groaned, covering up her pathetic sniffles. 

Mpho had no strength left in his body. No feeling either. He really was going to leave soon. He swallowed weakly, wetting his mouth as best he could to speak. He'd curse the earth if he left without telling Nadine..."Hey," he spoke, waiting for Nadine to look at him. "You'll be okay, Rossi. And I will be too. Always." As he finished, he weakly nudged her leg with his hand. He felt his lungs huff the last of his oxygen away, and his vision grew dark. The world trembled, but as everything faded he heard Nadine clearly.

"Totsiens."

~~~

The mood in the small Jeep had grown solemn. Chloe had turned the radio off when Nadine began her story, and the only sound was the wind whirling around them and the crunch of gravel and sand under the tires. "I'm sorry, China."

Nadine shook her head. "Thanks, but it's alright. I'm fine. I lived, after all." 

Chloe nodded in agreement. "That is better than the alternative, I suppose." She turned and offered Nadine a bright smile, who answered with a crooked grin. 

"Besides, we knew what we were getting into, enlisting at the time we did and all." Nadine tapped the side of the car to distract herself. Opening up to people she trusted wasn't usually hard for her, it was the opposite actually. Once she began talking sometimes, it was hard to stop. She didn't want to overwhelm Chloe, scare her away, so she bit the inside of her cheek to stop the words from tumbling out. She contemplated telling Chloe about the tattoo on her thigh she got in memory of Mpho. Ever since she was little Nadine's thighs had been ticklish and Mpho, without fail, would always pinch them to annoy her. But that would have to wait. Chloe would raise hell to see it, and Nadine wasn't feeling up to it.

"Very fair," Chloe nodded, "Still though, I'm sorry love. I'd liked to have met Mpho, he sounds nice." 

Nadine smiled wider at that, remembering her childhood friend and all the fun they'd had. "Ja, he would've loved you especially--probably more than he loved me." She chuckled softly.

Chloe laughed in turn, putting her right hand on Nadine's strong and rounded shoulder. "I highly doubt that. You're one of a kind, Rossi." 

Nadine immediately snapped her eyes closed and exhaled strongly. _God, what've I done?_

Chloe grinned wickedly. "What? It's cute!"

"I'm not cute!"

"Hmm, no. You're very cute." 

Nadine squeezed her head with both hands, groaning as Chloe laughed, head thrown back and hair wind-swept. They bickered for the remainder of the drive, their smiles growing wider and hands drifting closer with every minute.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed! I always headcanon Nadine did some military time before Shoreline. Jumping straight into mercenary work doesn't sound right, personally. 
> 
> Please feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts and/or feedback! This was done in between my finals so there are bound to be errors.


End file.
